Tao of the Machine

Art

David Brown: Art.

This may be a bit of a stretch, but I wonder if the above (read the post first :-) can be applied to agile vs design-everything-first programming. With agile development, you write code, evaluate, refactor, write some more, etc. It's a continuous process where design and actual coding go hand in hand, and you often learn along the way, about the problem at hand, and about programming in general. With the other method (design everything first, then implement without changing the design), you don't have this learn-as-you-go benefit.

LOTR ROTK

"STFU! I was ROTFL when I saw the NZ link on /. was totally FUBAR. I couldn't even RTFA!" (as seen on Slashdot)

My obligatory and short ROTK review... Yesterday we went to see the movie. (Yes, everybody else probably saw it weeks ago, but I was on holiday, or something like that.)

IMHO, the movie is good, but doesn't reach the heights of the previous two. With The Cat in the Hat, I was waiting for it to become funny, and with ROTK, I was waiting for that one moment that would be especially touching, or amazing, or surprising, or impressive. Such a moment didn't come. Sure, there is plenty of good stuff, but nothing to get my adrenaline pumping. Possibly because we've seen it all in the first two episodes.

Nice special effects and CGI: Minas Tirith, the mûmakil, dragons, eagles. And Shelob of course, although I had imagined her to be blacker, darker. Gollum is cool too, but we've seen him in part 2 already.

Like with the first two parts, ROTK-the-movie doesn't follow the book very well. A bad case of artist's impression, I guess. People already pointed out the omission of the Scouring of the Shire, with Saruman. For other discrepancies, see the summary of the book.

All in all, a good movie, but not as impressive as I thought it would be.

Back (3)

Being back in the Netherlands was quite a culture shock. All houses close together. Narrow little roads with lots of traffic. Weird traffic rules, and lots of constructs to pester car owners. Stores close at night and on Sundays (and holidays). ...All very different from my current situation in the US.

I'm not saying all these things are bad -- a 24-hour economy is nice for consumers, for example (bored at 3 AM? go to Wal-Mart or Denny's) but not so nice for people who are forced to work nightshifts at minimum wages. The obnoxious traffic rules protect pedestrians and people riding bikes. And so on. The point is, that the US (or at least this part of it) is a *very* different society from the Netherlands, and it comes with different rules, and different ideas about what is acceptable.

I really missed Dutch food. But as my luck would have it, I got sick, and lost my appetite, causing me to eat tiny bits of things and be full. Maybe next time I can sample more food and have a frikandel, or a kroket, gehaktbal and so on. Soda has a different taste too, probably because over there it isn't loaded with potassium and sodium benzoate. And chocolate, and drop, and borrelnoten...

The trip itself was terrible. A 2 hour drive to Orlando, wait for several hours at the airport, 7h40 hour flight (and 9h45 back), 2.5 hour car drive from Schiphol... and then a nice jet lag. For some strange reason, security wasn't very strict when going from Orlando to Amsterdam, but it was when coming back. (To the point of being ridiculous... what's the point of checking your carry-on luggage three separate times? And why do you have to go through a metal detector when you come *out* of the plane in Orlando?)

The difference in temperature was, uh, interesting too... in the Netherlands it was freezing, sometimes snowing... but when we got back in Orlando, it was around 80°F. Hmm, maybe I won't need that sweater and thick coat anytime soon...

Back (2)

Well.... I'm back in the US again. My visit to the Netherlands would have been good, had I been able to enjoy it. And now we're back in this stupid place again. I have a nice list of resolutions, which will be very hard to get done, since nothing ever changes here. I would like a decent job, and more control over my life, including money and what I can and cannot do. Hey, one can always dream.

If at all possible, I want to write a book this year. I better finish my Py article first, though. :-)

More later, when I'm in a better mood, hopefully.

My programming language weighs a ton

"Indonesian villagers claim to have captured a python that is almost 49.21 feet long and weighs nearly 992.07 pounds, a local official said Monday."

*puke*

Some people do anything for publicity.

Back

More later.